Every Monday, I will link to a list of 5 quality posts. This is the criteria:

1. Join my MyBlogLog community and BlogCatalog neighborhood
2. Be a ‘regular’, visit and comment regularly (I love my friends! Twitter, Pownce, Plurk…)
3. Write Quality posts
4. You’re on this list!

*This list is subject to change anytime with or without notice.

On a Saturday morning, I’m sitting at my computer, trying to think of a new topic for my blog post. A dog starts barking outside my front door, so I run to see what it wants. On the way, I forgot that I had set up my castle of cards there, along with the cherry with whipped cream on top. I opened the door, and the dog started licking me. Oh great. I’m in a pile of 5 packets of now-bent and ruined cards, whipped cream, a cherry, and a dog climbing all over me.

Comtinue this story in your comment!

Benefits for Guest Blogging Here

• More exposure!
• Your name in every post, a link to your blog, an author page promoting you and your blog.
• Your profile page on the sidebar, along with your blog.
• Experience, to expand your online web presence.
• Earn the reputation in your field.
• Be part of a growing community.
• Right now, there is no solid, individual pay. But, later this year, we may all be receiving pay!

How will this work?
Every blogger will be assigned a category which they have a passion an expertise in. A day will be assigned, or chosen. Every week, the blogger will post on their day, more if they want.

Terms and Conditions

• Posts must be original work, not published anywhere else before or after submitting to NS.
• Any work/quotes/images by anyone else must be properly credited to the author.
• NS reserves the right, with no obligation, to monitor any content, whether deemed inappropriate, and to terminate and/ or decline.
• These terms and conditions may be changed, amended, terminated at any time, with or without notice.

Think you have what it takes? Contact me if you’re interested or if you have questions.

Take out the bad parts.

According to Stephen King, novelist, is the ultimate secret to suceeding in writing.

But what does it mean? Soften the fall when reporting bad news? Not write bad points when writing reviews? Not exactly. It means choosing the right words.

How do you choose the right words? Simple. Take out the bad or unneeded parts.

Which words are Needed? Wording is Everything.

All the fun is in how you say a thing. -Robert Frost

Wording is absolutely everything. There was someone who represented Strunk & White’s well known quote, “Omit Needless Words” this way:

Omit needless words.

At first glance, even I thought it was clever. You omit the words which are needless; I thought it might be witty too. But when you look it over a few more times, it might stop making sense. If it still makes sense to you, let me give you a hand.

Let’s follow their advice and omit “needless” from the phrase since it is already crossed out.

Omit words.

Take a look at the new phrase, “Omit words”. Which words do you omit? Suitable words? Good words? Words that start with “G”? Would you know what I’m talking about if you didn’t read the first phrase? I don’t think so.

Needless is, basically, a very important part to the already-short phrase. If you omit “needless”, the phrase completely looses its meaning, therefore “Omit needless words” is an invalid point.

Getting Everyone to Read

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. Scannable articles do make a big difference when compared to non-scannable articles. Some people, like me, scan through the article to see if it’s worth reading before actually starting to read.
2. A buzzing header that mentally says “Read Me!” is a very hard thing to achieve; not a lot of writers or bloggers know how to make a magnetic or buzzing header. Here are some tips:
   - Get to the point; what is the article about?
   - Sweeten the deal. Use the power of words to grab the reader in.
3. A clear topic is a very important thing if you want to be a successful writer. What is your piece of writing about? Should people be treating it as an important document or treating it People read it… then what?
4. A topic that benefits the reader is another key thing. You need to give the reader a reason to read your article. With no reason to read your articles, readers will not read them.
5. Targeting a specific group of audiences will increase your chance of getting the article on front pages of social sites.
6. Choose a wide audience to target. A wide target audience gets you a better chance of having your article being read.
7. Make it look good. Make sure your margins are aligned, text is easy to read, font is not too small, the colour doesn’t blend into the background, and every other little thing. An image to spice up your article always helps.

Good luck! What are some of the other techniques you use to spread the word or just shout about something? Please share it in your comment! (Some thoughts would be nice too.)

Caller: Hey, can you help me? My computer has locked up, and no matter how many times I type eleven, it won’t unfreeze.Agent: What do you mean, “type eleven?”

Caller: The message on my screen says, “Error Type 11!”

“Plug, un-plug [bar]”

On one call, the caller seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to complete each instruction she was given.

Agent: Ma’am, I can’t help noticing that every time I give you an instruction, it takes a really long time before you get back to me. Is your computer that slow?

Caller: Oh, no, it’s just the stupid, stupid design of this computer. Every time I want to click something, I have to unplug the keyboard to plug in the mouse. And then every time I want to use the keyboard again, I have to unplug the mouse. Because there’s only one jack.

Agent: Ma’am, you do realize that there’s a jack on the keyboard itself? You’re supposed to plug the mouse into the keyboard, and the keyboard into the computer.

Caller: Are YOU KIDDING ME!? Oh, wait a minute—yes, I see it now! Oh, holy cow. That’s going to be so much easier!

Agent: Just out of curiosity, how long have you been using your computer that way?

Caller: Six weeks!

Being customer support of any kind can be frustrating– and maybe funny when you think about it after. Any experiences?

P.S. Nothing like some humor to start your weekend! :)

Be here for the next Monday Linking!

© Neonscent
More at NeonScent.com

How it works- You publish the widget on your blog, and start dropping on others who have the widget, and you earn credits.

How are credits earned?

1. You earn 1 credit every time you drop your card for someone else.
2. You earn 1 credit every time someone else drops their card for you.
3. You earn credits every time someone advertises on your widget.

The credits can be used to buy advertising spots on other bloggers’ blogs, and as they described it, can be valuable.

The problem with that is, when you’re only a few days old, and since the ad prices are calculated according to the drops you’ve gotten, rounded up, x2, the price for an ad per day for a person who’s just signed up would be 2, which can be made by dropping 2 cards.

This can be very unfair to your advertisers who’s paid way more than 2 to advertise on your blog, so watch out!

I’ve got a full ad queue lining up for ad spots, unfortunately for 2, and I don’t think it’s very fair for my other advertisers, so if your ad was rejected, please don’t take offense! Feel free to reapply later, when this issue has been solved. :)

P.S. I’ll drop on yours if you let me know. Or we can exchange. :)

Visual Scope Studios is a Seattle-based company offering website design and development services.

On Showcase

They have a large and growing portfolio, with different a range of categories, every one reaching down below the fold (complete with screen shots!), showcasing previous work they have done. This shows that they have experience; in web design, and in business management, not only specializing in one topic, which is definitely a plus.

Design

One of the services Visual Scope specializes in is Web Design. They have a clean style, matching colour schemes; priorities above the fold. I’m not sure if there is more than one designer or if they were from 1999, but some designs are less “modern” than others, using an old and un-user-friendly design, so I decided to take a look at the source code to see why.

A Shock.

I looked at the DocType; XHTML. Imagine my surprise when I opened up the source file and found– tables! I triple checked the codes, but, I saw tables. Tables! Tables! Tables!

Tables are meant for storing data; so they generally load slower.
Nowadays, DIVs are in style…

DIVs are more flexible and are usually styled by a CSS file or right onto the file. You can read more about it by Google searching it. Visual Scope even has an article about it, combining XHTML and CSS! (A shock!)

DIVs or no, Visual Scope seems to have ongoing amounts of clients; I would suggest switching over to DIVs to keep up with larger clients. Nevertheless, they seem to have done fine marketing on their ranks.

Online Marketing

When advertisers buy reviews and advertisements, another big factor is the ranks. Search engine optimization being one of their expert areas,  Visual Scope boasts that they have pushed themselves up to one of the top ranks for their keywords (see image), and can do the same for you/your site.

Because of the tables, I’m still not exactly sure why they have such a large amount of clients; it can be many things– marketing, job boards, word of mouth, advertising, etc. But if the reason is marketing, then I suppose they would be a good agency to go to for marketing.

Pick Me!

As I was browsing their website, I noticed that they had motivating mantras encouraging you to go to them for your needs, such as “Maximize the full potential of your website” I can’t be the one to say if it’s true or not for their service, since there are no stats provided for previous work, but those mantras actually work; they put your website in new light, suggesting what they can do for you, to pursuade clients.

Contact

They have a clear means of contact, a basic form on the sidebar, a more complex one on a ‘Contact’ page. They even have an ‘Urgent’ ticket system for existing clients to contact them urgently. In my opinion, there isn’t much difference between the ticket system form and the contact form. I would just combine the two. I made a quick outline of an ideal contact form:

The only thing holding Visual Scope back is tables! Plus, a “Get a Quote!” or “Hire Us!” button/sign wouldn’t hurt. ;)

This was a sponsored review.

• Comes with benefits. Most people aren’t willing to blog for nothing. They usually are offered a service or product or maybe even money!
• More exposure. Opened up a new blog and need more exposure? Guest blogging is a good way to let people know that there is a new blogger in the community.
• More friends. You have friends from your blog, and you have friends on your friends blog (where you guest blog). Isn’t that double the friends?
• Wider audience. Besides blogging for your blog, you’re also guest blogging, so your audience is twice the usual size!
• Gain experience. Experience is priceless… where else can you get an established blog with an audience who’s willing to read?

Hiring a guest blogger comes with many benefits, too, including:

• More opinion, different viewpoints. Surely, not everyone who reads your blog is objected to your opinion, but it’s nice to have different viewpoints once in a while to get their minds working on which side they want.
• More topics. Not a good accountant? No worries! Just hire an accountant blogger to guest blog for you! It gives your audience a wider range of topics to read about.
• A break. Everyone needs a break once in a while for something different.
• Less work. Relax! Have fun! Do something else for a change!
• New friend. Or improved relationship.

When choosing guest bloggers…

• See their previous work. Can’t risk having poor content! Even if they don’t offer it, remember to ask!
• Get to know them a little first. You should know the blogger at least a little, if you’re going to trust them to take your blog in their hands, even for one post.
• Have an idea of what they’re planning to write. Ask them about what they’re planning to write if they’re chosen. This way, you know for sure you get what you choose. (Or see next point.)
• Have them submit and article beforehand. This way can be a little hard, and can cause disputes if you don’t have a regular amount of readers; remember to state that once submitted, you have the right to use or not use the article, all rights given (or something similar).

Lastly, getting the word out to the world that you need guest bloggers may sound hard, but here are just a few tips.

• Announce it. You have a blog, so where else can you get free advertising?
• Tell your friends. Offline friends, online friends, friends’ friends. Tell anyone and everyone!
• Forum posting. Make a new topic on a forum announcing your news. Put it in your signature. Send it to everyone in your friends list. If you aren’t in a forum, search “Blogging Forum” on any search engine and they will come up.
• Visit others. Maybe if you offer to blog for your friend, they will do the same?
• Create a “Write for Us” page. This page should include the contact form, email, any terms and conditions you have, any benefits, extra information, etc.
• Do it on a special occasion. Sometimes, when there is a reason, people are more likely to volunteer, e.g. your birthday, because they will more likely be thinking they are doing you a favour in honour of the occasion.

Has anyone had any special guest blogging incidents? Please share!

P.S. Would you like to guest blog here? Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified!